Footnotes

Provenance
Acquired directly from the artist by Dr. John Ignatius Perl, a well-known Chicago-based surgeon and art patron, Chicago, late 1940s-early 1950s
Thence by descent

Exhibited
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Carnegie Institute, Paintings in the United States, 10 October - 8 December 1946, apparently no. 31 (labels on verso)

Based on the photographs provided, Olga Sugrobova-Roth confirmed the authenticity of the work.


Boris Anisfeld was said to manifest predilection for 'exotic fancy' and the ability to see 'floods of colour'. Christian Brinton mentioned that 'it is obvious that colour and creative fantasy were characteristic of Russian painting before the advent of Anisfeld, but he intensified this colour, and added to this fantasy an unwonted luxuriance'. (C. Brinton, 'Fantast', in Vanity Fair, October 1918, p. 71). Contemporaries praised his works as 'tales of wonderous deep tones' (K. Syunnerberg), as 'colour fantasies' (D. Kardovsky), observed his ability to 'transform nature, almost to break it up as if on a forge of colours (Vs. Voinov) (as quoted in E. Lingenauber, O. Sugrobova-Roth, Boris Anisfeld. Catalogue Raisonné, 2011, p. 18).

Having acknowledged talent from the young age, Anisfeld achieved wide recognition in Russia and caught the attention of art critics almost immediately after his arrival in the USA in 1918. He utilized narratives from various religious traditions and combined and mixed elements of Judaism, Christianity, Pantheism, Hinduism, Buddhism and even elements of paganism. 'Symbols from a particular religion are not consciously inserted by Anisfeld; rather, they are absorbed by him as part of the ethos of Symbolism and the general atmosphere of interest in theosophy and the esoteric' (ibid., p. 55).

Dreams portrays a heard of horses rushing through the cloudy misty sky, upwards. The beautiful, spirited horses painted with barely visible contours and soft muted colours create a sense of spacious magnificence. Their feverish frantic frenzy propels the movement upward, creating a whirlwind energy that dominates the picture. It evokes a feeling of tension and uneasiness, which is unexpectedly resolved by finding a balance in a small figure of a toddler in the lower left corner. His peaceful pose, graceful presence and natural surroundings bring unexpected harmony and balance. Perhaps, this is a lesson in the universal principle of balance - movement and stillness, good and bad, life and death - all are connected and all are parts of one miracle of the creation.

Dreams is a quintessential example of the artist's works. They are deceptively simple and still complex, familiar and yet fantastical, decorative but exquisitely curated, and always unforgettable... 'Despite its seeming complexity, there is something direct, instinctive, and elemental... Typically Russian in their mysticism and power of psychic evocation, there is a festal, carnivalesque quality' (C. Brinton, 'Fantast', in Vanity Fair, October 1918, p. 71).